Lesbrief 8
Kijkvaardigheid en Literatuur [HAVO/VWO]
Periode:
Thema:
Post-1970
Guilt, and the road to redemption
Introduction
The two novels in this unit are set in countries that have been torn apart by war – armed
conflicts which, rightly or wrongly, are linked in everyone’s mind with religion. Both central
characters are torn by guilt and are trying to find redemption1, a way to be saved from the
pain of their guilt. Both are paying an unbearable price for their earlier mistakes. The road to
redemption is long and hard, the end is not clear, and their only guide is a troubled heart.
The first story is set in Afghanistan, the second in Northern Ireland. Apart from their
geography, history and culture, an obvious difference between these two countries is that the
situation in Afghanistan is getting worse every day, while the people of Northern Ireland seem
to have found a peaceful solution to their conflict.
Film
Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner (2003)
“A way to be good again”
Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan writer whose family lives in political asylum in the United
States. His first novel, The Kite Runner, was published in 2003 and has become a huge
success, selling eight million copies worldwide. The film of the same name, released in 2007
and directed by Marc Forster, is also an international success. Although Hosseini wrote the
book in English, in most of the film the Afghan language Dari is spoken.
ORIENTATION (HAVO/VWO)
1
The tragedy of Afghanistan is in the news every day. However, to really understand
The Kite Runner you need to know about the background to the present situation: the
country’s turbulent history in the late 20th century. Use an encyclopedia or Internet to
find out the most important facts:
a
When and how the Kingdom of Afghanistan became the Republic of
Afghanistan.
b
How things changed after the Saur Revolution.
c
Why the United States originally got involved in Afghanistan.
d
When and why the Soviet Union invaded the country.
e
How many Afghans are thought to have been killed during the Soviet
occupation.
f
What happened after the Soviets left.
g
Who the Taliban are and in which period they controlled the country.
Once you have collected this information, compare it with what your classmates have.
1
From the verb to redeem, which means to remove a fault, to make amends for something done in the past, or,
in the Christian sense, to be saved from a state of sin.
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A – Growing up together
The Kite Runner is about two young boys growing up in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in the
1970s, a fairly peaceful and tolerant period in the country’s troubled history. They are
inseparable – almost always together, closer than brothers. Amir is the son of a rich, liberal
businessman. His best friend is Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant, Ali. Hassan and
Ali are Hazara, a people often looked down on by other Afghanis, especially the proud
Pashtuns. Amir can read and write but Hassan cannot, so he loves to listen to Amir’s stories –
ancient Persian legends of mythical places and warriors, and stories he writes himself.
Watch Scene A from The Kite Runner and then answer the questions below.
Í
Scene A [11:53 – 16:03]
Amir persuades Hassan to fire his slingshot (catapult) at a dog. Then they go to the cinema to see The
Magnificent Seven (a classic Western). Afterwards, the neighbourhood bully, Assef, and his two
younger ‘assistants’ – his cronies – catch up with them. The boys are scared, but Hassan uses his
slingshot to frighten off Assef. The morning after, Amir tells Hassan his latest story.
COMPREHENSION (HAVO/VWO)
2
What mistake does Hassan make about the movie stars? What does this tell us about
him?
3
How does Assef mock and insult Amir and Hassan?
4
What fault does Hassan find in Amir’s story, and how does Amir feel about this?
INTERPRETATION (VWO)
5
How are Amir and Hassan different in character? Write down as many differences as
you can, illustrating them with examples of what the boys say and do.
B – Things fall apart
What the boys love most of all is flying kites. Kiting in Afghanistan (and many other Asian
countries) is not just for fun, it is a battle in the air, a fight for survival. Powdered glass is
glued to the kite string so that it can cut down other kites. In Kabul, each time a string is cut,
boys race through the streets and narrow alleys to fetch the falling kite as a trophy. Every
winter there is a big tournament – the boy flying the last kite still in the air is the champion.
Amir is a great kite flier, but Hassan is the greatest kite runner; he always knows by instinct
exactly where the kite will land. This year, Amir wins the tournament, making his father very
proud. Hassan runs after the kite that has just been defeated. A little later, Amir goes in search
of his kite runner, but an old man says he has seen bigger boys chasing him. Then Amir hears
voices in a dead-end alley. He peeks around the corner and sees that Assef and his two cronies
have trapped Hassan at the end. Assef gives Hassan a brutal beating. Then something terrible
and unspeakable happens – Assef orders the two cronies to hold Hassan down ... and rapes
him.
Hassan has always come to Amir’s rescue, but now Amir is too frightened to help his friend.
He just stands there staring in silence, watching Hassan suffering.
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Now watch Scene B and answer the questions below.
Í
Scene B [32:40 – 36:06]
Amir returns home with his trophy. His father hugs him. This should be Amir’s moment of triumph – his
father has always been very hard on him – but it is not.
When spring comes, it is clear that nothing will ever be the same again.
COMPREHENSION (HAVO/VWO)
6
When Ali (Hassan’s father) asks Amir if anything has happened to his son, why does
Amir answer the way he does, and what does this tell us about his feelings?
7
Baba (Amir’s father) also knows that something has gone wrong between the boys.
What advice does he give Amir?
8
Why has Amir stopped making up stories? And why does he throw pomegranates at
Hassan and accuse him of being a coward?
INTERPRETATION (VWO)
9
Why, in your view, is Amir unable to show his true feelings to the people closest to
him?
10
If you were Amir, what would you have done in this situation?
C - Aftermath
Before long, the situation at home becomes so painful – with Amir doing everything he
possibly can to drive Hassan away from him – that Ali decides to leave Kabul and take his
son with him. They return to Hazarajat, their own part of the country.
In 1979, the Russians invade Afghanistan and take Kabul. Amir’s father is a well-known
anti-communist, so he and Amir flee to Pakistan and from there to America. Amir grows up,
goes to university, graduates and marries. Soon after the wedding, his father dies of cancer,
not surviving long enough to see his son’s first novel published.
Meanwhile, in 1994, the Taliban start taking control in Afghanistan, banning everything that
goes against their strict interpretation of the Shari'a (Islamic law). In September 1996, they
take over Kabul and one of the first things they ban is kite flying.
Then one day when Amir is at home in San Francisco, completely out of the blue he gets a
phone call from Pakistan. It is Rahim Khan, his father’s best friend, who looked after their
house in Kabul after they fled. Rahim Khan used to be closer to Amir – and understand him
better – than his father. Rahim Khan is seriously ill, with only a few months left to live. He
wants Amir to come to Pakistan, telling him “There is a way to be good again”.
Now watch Scene C and answer the questions below.
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Í
Scene C [1hr 15:52 – 1hr 20:18]
Amir has come to Peshawar in Pakistan to see Rahim Khan, who has many difficult and painful things
to tell him.
COMPREHENSION (HAVO/VWO)
11
What has happened to Hassan since Amir last saw him as a boy?
12
Why did Rahim Khan go to Hazarajat and whom did he bring back to Kabul?
13
What did the Taliban do after Rahim Kham left Kabul to come to Pakistan?
14
What is the most unexpected thing that Rahim Khan tells Amir – and why does he
want him to go back to Kabul?
INTERPRETATION (VWO)
15
Why did Amir’s father hide the truth, not only from Amir but also from Hassan?
What, in your opinion, does this tell us about his character and Afghan culture in
general?
If you want to know what Amir did as a result of this meeting, and whether he found the way
to be good again, then read the book or see the film!
Literature
Bernard MacLaverty’s Cal (1983)
Catholic vs. Protestant
Bernard MacLaverty’s novel Cal, published in 1983, is about an unemployed working-class
Catholic teenager in Northern Ireland (Ulster). He lives with his father in a Protestant
neighbourhood of a town near the capital, Belfast. It is the early 1980s, during ‘the Troubles’.
ORIENTATION (HAVO/VWO)
16
To understand this novel, you need to know something about the Troubles. Before you
read on, find out what your classmates already know about them. Who knows the
most? If you all know very little, ask your teacher for help or do an Internet search.
Write down the most important facts, share them with the class ... and then read on.
The Troubles (1966-1998) was a period of violent conflict that divided the population of
Ulster on religious lines: Catholics against Protestants. Almost all the Catholics – one third of
the population – wanted Ulster to break away from the United Kingdom and re-unite with the
Republic of Ireland (southern Ireland, or Eire, to give it its Irish name). For this reason, they
called themselves Republicans. Many Catholics supported the Irish Republican Army, the
IRA. There were other armed groups who wanted reunification, including the Irish National
Liberation Army, which split away from the IRA in 1972. Most of the Protestants –
two-thirds of the population – wanted Ulster to stay in the UK. They called themselves
Unionists, or Loyalists (loyal to the Queen and the British government in London). There
were two main Protestant armed groups, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster
Defence Association (UDA). Officially, the British Army was sent into Ulster in 1969 to keep
the peace, working closely with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the Northern Irish
police.
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However, few Catholics saw things that way: to them, the British soldiers were foreign
invaders and the RUC was a Protestant police force that acted only in the interests of
Protestant people. The IRA saw the British Army and the RUC as the enemy.
During the Troubles, more than 3 468 people were killed, over 2 000 of them by Republican
armed groups and over 1 000 by Loyalist groups. More than 350 people were killed by the
army and the police. A total of 1829 civilians lost their lives. When peace-loving Irish and
British people look back on all that bloodshed, they know that these deaths achieved nothing;
they only brought suffering to the victims’ families and friends.
There was so much hatred and bitterness on both sides that it was very unusual – and
dangerous – for Catholics to live in Protestant neighbourhoods, like Cal and his father did.
Murder and love
Cal and his father cannot stand the violence. Like most people, they just want to live in peace.
However, Cal has a dark secret: he was driving the car that took an old school friend of his –
an IRA member – to a nearby farm to shoot the Protestant RUC policeman who lived there.
Afterwards, he drove the murderer back into town and they set fire to the car. His ‘friend’
forced him to do the driving. Cal knows he did wrong, but if he stops ‘doing jobs’ for the IRA
they will kill him for being a ‘traitor’.
In a bizarre plot twist, Cal falls in love with the murdered policeman’s widow, Marcella – an
attractive half-Italian, half-Irish woman who is much older than him and also a Catholic. To
escape the IRA he goes into hiding, living secretly in a disused cottage on the farm where
Marcella still lives with her little daughter and her dead husband’s parents.
Now read the following passage, taken from Chapter 5, in which Cal and Marcella have just
made love and are talking about her dead husband. Look up any words you don’t understand
in the word list below or a good English dictionary. Then answer the questions below.
‘Were you in love with him?’ Cal’s voice still had echoes of a shake in it.
‘Love is a very strange idea. I never know what it is. When you were young it seemed to be
all intensity and no opportunity. Later when you did get the opportunity the fire had gone out
of it.’
‘I still have it,’ said Cal.
‘You’re still young. Anyway that’s too simple. It must be a mixture of friendship and desire.
The friendship had gone out of our marriage long ago and Robert’s lust was for someone
inside his head – not me.’
‘And you went on living together?’
She laughed. ‘For God’s sake, Cal, it’s still going on. I’m living with his family.’
‘Did you even like him?’ Cal’s voice was high with incredulity.
‘Recently – not much.’
Cal laughed, a loud harsh guffaw with no amusement in it. It went on too long.
‘What are you laughing at?’
He was unable to stop immediately he heard her tone. ‘Nothing. It’s a kind of joke. You really
mean that? About not liking him?’
‘Yes.’ She looked perplexed, her face like a child’s not understanding but continuing to smile.
‘Don’t laugh like that again. It’s not you.’ She held out her arm and took him under her coat.
‘Sorry,’ he said. The fleece was warm against his back.
‘He was so plausible – one of those people that everybody likes in company. He could charm
the birds off the trees – everybody, men and women. He was witty and intelligent but you
couldn’t believe a single word he said. He told lies, Cal. All the time. About his affairs – I
know he had two or three at least – about his drinking, about the money he spent. After a
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while I stopped asking and even then he offered me lies. It got so bad I think he actually
believed them himself. And the worst of it was that his mother backed him up on everything.
She took his word as gospel.’
Cal nodded, watching her staring into the fire. His hand moved on the bones of her back.
‘He was one of those people whose company you love for an hour or so but you’re glad
you’re not married to them. But I was.’
‘Do you love me?’
‘You’re not listening, Cal. I need more time – to heal maybe.’
She rested her chin on her knees and he thought she was on the verge of tears. He caressed the
side of her face with the back of his hand and kissed her on the cheek. She acknowledged the
gesture with a resigned tightening movement of her lips.
‘I love you,’ he said. As he said it he felt a new danger. The more he loved her, the more
friendly he became with her, the more afraid he was that he would tell her what he had done.
It was the one thing he wanted to talk to her about, to have her console him. He wanted to
share his guilt with the person he had wronged. To commune with her and be forgiven. He
opened his mouth to speak and she waited, listening with raised eyebrows. Cal paused.
‘I would like – another drink,’ he said.
Word list
incredulity
guffaw
fleece
plausible
witty
gospel
on the verge of
to caress
to acknowledge
gesture
resigned
to console
to commune
total disbelief (from ‘incredible’)
a loud laugh
sheepskin
believable
funny in a clever way
the complete truth (from ‘gospel truth’)
close to something; about to do something
to softly stroke
to show that you have seen and accepted something
body movement expressing emotion
accepting a reality you cannot change
to comfort; to make someone who is unhappy feel better
to share fully
COMPREHENSION (HAVO/VWO)
17
In your own words, explain Marcella’s views on how love changes as you get older?
18
Why do you think Cal laughs (guffaws) without amusement, and how does Marcella
respond to this?
19
Was Marcella happily married? If not, why not?
20
What is Cal most scared of?
INTERPRETATION (VWO)
21
What do you suppose may have drawn Cal to Marcella in the first place – physical
attraction, or something else, or both? Before answering, carefully read the last
paragraph of the text again. What does this have to do with the theme of guilt and
redemption?
22
Given what you know about Cal and Marcella, what are their chances of having a
successful, happy relationship? Explain your answer.
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CHALLENGE (HAVO/VWO)
Choose and do one of the following challenges:
23
Guilt and redemption has always been a popular theme in serious literature. Find out
about another literary work – ancient or modern, written in any language – which
explores this theme. Write a short article (200-400 words) for a popular magazine
aimed at young people. Your aim is to get them so interested in this work of literature
that they will go out and buy it – and then read it! Include colourful facts about the
writer, the country and period in which the work was written and/or the story is set, as
well as any other background information that you think is relevant. Briefly
summarize the story and, if possible, give an impression of how critics and readers
reacted to this work.
24
Imagine you are the author of Cal. You have just written the passage above, but are
not sure how to continue. The only thing you have decided is that Cal’s next line will
be: “Marcella, there’s something I have to tell you.” Does Cal tell her the truth, or
does he lie to her? If he tells her the truth, how does she react? Do you only need
dialogue, or is it necessary to include some description of action? Write two different
versions (200-400 words each) and discuss them with your classmates. To make the
dialogue and action as realistic and as natural as possible, you could first act out the
scene with two students in front of a small audience. Feel free to improvise – and
chop and change – until you are happy with the result.
25
Write a short story (300-600 words) in which the central character feels guilty about
something he/she did in the past. What was so bad about it and what effect did it have
on other people? How does he/she try to deal with the guilt? Does he/she take the road
to redemption, or the opposite: damnation? Use your fantasy, or draw inspiration from
your own or someone else’s experience. For background, choose some setting that
interests you personally.
When you have finished, share your work with your classmates. If you like, you can
record it and present it in audio or video format.
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